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Purpose: To investigate the bowling injuries of elite bowlers. Material and method: I gave lectures on sports medicine to the professional bowlers who passed the professional bowler's qualification test this year. At the time, I asked them about their injuries sustained from bowling. Questionnaires from 1992, 1999 and 2002 were analyzed. Participants were 111 males and 36 females with an average of 29 ± 6.9 years old. Their bowling career was 9.6 ± 6.7 years. Results and discussion: Sixty-three(42.8%)bowlers had experienced severe injuries requiring a week' s rest or more. Questions on the location of present pain and previous pain revealed the characteristics of the bowling injuries. Among the present injuries, low back pain (61 cases)was most frequent, followed by finger pain(47 cases). Wrist pain was seen in 34 cases, muscle and tendon injuries were 25 cases. Elbow and shoulder injuries were 24 and 23 cases. The laterality of the painful site was seen in lumbago and knee pain. Many bowlers suffered pain in the lower back and knee of their non-throwing side. Female bowlers had a higher injury rate than males except at the wrist and had the same rate at elbow and fingers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]